Remove old product or grey out?

[tdw]

Usually I delete discontinued products or products I don't intend to sell any more.

Recently I have noticed sites greying out products that are out of stock or discontinued. I am assuming this is for search engine purposes as I found a site through a discontinued product.

Is there a way to leave a product on site but not active or maybe greyed out instead of a big red out of stock sign mixed in with in stock items?

[leehack]

Create your own custom product layout and use it where you wish, you can choose to leave out the add to cart layout from that layout so it doesn't show. Just create a basic layout containing just what you want and apply it those products in question when you want to.

[Mike Hughes]

I'm not convinced this really makes sense.

Yes. You keep the pages in the search engines, but if I ever come across this as a vistor I always just back out from the site and go to next one. I'm looking for something, don't waste my time by showing me stuff you haven't got.

To take this to the extreme. You might as well just create a page for everything you can think off, even stuff you never have or will stock. You'll get the page in the search engines but would you ever do this? I hope the answer is no.

It reminds of the sites that shove the word 'review' on every product page but never do anything to get any reviews. Yes, they'll get visitors searching for a review but because they don't have it people just move on.

In a nutshell: It's not a good idea to waste prospective customers time promoting stuff that you haven't got.

Mike

[leehack]

I largely agree with you Mike apart from when you use the product to upsell alternatives or the newer versions if it is a product that has been superceded or maybe even if you allow back orders on it, particularly if you had good SEO results on that product. Agree totally though on taking people to a page you no longer have in stock and never will just for the sake of it, utterly useless.

[pinbrook]

In the past few days I've been looking to buy a microwave. Simple task you might think.

One of the big shops near me is Argos, so I started my search there by using the online site.

I locate my chosen microwave and then go through the process to see if its in my local store, no it isnt. So i choose another microwave and go through the same process. After discovering that 3 microwaves are not stocked in my local store I give up and either go to Amazon where they will home deliver or go to Comet where I can touch and feel before I buy!

Given that Argos is different in as far as it cant give stock levels for all its stores, I was a potential buyer as I wanted to shop with them a they are a household name.

If i go to an independant shop and find 30% of items are out of stock I will move on almost immediately. I havent got time to be tempted in by products you dont have, its like having to rummage in a sale but at least the incentive there is a reduced price. Another analogy is the £3 DVDs in the supermarket, there's 100's of them but in such a jumble I dont bother to look. Not forgetting of course that over time as more products are discontinued you would have more products out of stock than in stock.

So just list what you have, with as much detail as you can and good images.

[tdw]

I agree customers may be put off, perhaps if cross sell is set up to identify alternatives it may work.

[tdw]

It reminds of the sites that shove the word 'review' on every product page but never do anything to get any reviews. Yes, they'll get visitors searching for a review but because they don't have it people just move on.

That really annoys me.